Longtime NRS customer Ken Wise discusses the joys of “messing about in boats,” which for him means pursuing the ultimate craft for his favorite pastime – running and fishing rivers.

“There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

When one realizes that every boat is a compromise, one then knows that the quest for the ultimate fishing craft is a lifelong endeavor. We’ll never reach the goal, but it’s certainly the best of fun along the journey.

Over the years, we have owned nine different craft, five of which we still own, three of which are NRS rafts or cats. First of the NRS boats was the smallest of the Otter “bucket boats.” The design point here was an inflatable that could fit in the Suburban when pulling the camp trailer and would enable family fishing on mountain lakes and tame rivers. Next came the NRS 16′ River Cat, which enabled carrying large loads on moderate rivers; would you believe four people, two dogs and camping gear? And it opened the door to serious whitewater. The most recent, the 13′ Cool Cat, was chosen to spread the load for fishing and allow more family members to join the fleet. It also enables fishing streams later in the summer when flows are low and pointy rocks are abundant.

The Otter performs its mission well, to this day. We have probably had this boat for nearly 30 years. A next generation is now learning to fish and trolling flies in its wake around favorite mountain lakes.

The River Cat has much flexibility for fishing. Initially full floorboards enabled standing to cast flies to the bank and after a number of tangles we developed the ability for three to fish at once. One favorite river is the South Fork of the Snake, in Idaho. There, the Tetons usually generate a stiff afternoon upstream breeze. To deal with the wind, we fashioned a motor mount on the back yoke for a 2 hp Honda outboard. The motor enables pushing downstream to the campsite at the end of a day of fishing, after ones arms are already tired from fishing and rowing.

The Cool Cat was our most recent acquisition, during the winter of 2010-2011. Fishing does not involve the large parties with which many raft; therefore, when it comes time to load boats on the trailer, there are only a couple of lifters available. The Cool Cat era also included an effort to lighten both catarafts. This was consistent with the mission to be able to raft in the late summer. To this end, the frame of the Cool Cat is a self-designed hybrid using some NRS LoPro fittings and some welded lighter tubing. The jury is still out on whether this was a good idea or not. But the biggest innovation that might have utility for others was the flooring. We used Dyneema® netting, commonly used on racing catamarans, stretched tightly with a similar cord. We also drilled out the centers of the NRS LoPro fittings to lighten them. While making the Cool Cat as light as possible, we also lightened the River Cat by replacing its floorboards with the same Dyneema netting and drilling out the LoPro fittings. All this lightening also enables car topping the Cool Cat frame.

Most rafters bring along a pretty elaborate camp, move early in the day to the next assigned campground, set up camp and relax for the rest of the day. Fishermen do not follow the same agenda, often rafting and stopping to fish until as least late in the afternoon, so camping is less elaborate. Consistent with the lightening process of the boats themselves, other than food in the cooler and a backpack stove and utensils in the dry box, each couple gets by with a single dry bag with clothes, tent, sleeping bags and pads totaling less than 40 pounds, probably more like 30 pounds. Obviously the motivation to lighten personal gear was not driven by the boat-loading process, but by the desire to make the boats easier to handle on the river.

These ramblings reinforce the truth that every boat is a compromise and that our idea of the ultimate boat will differ greatly from yours. But that’s some of the fun of simply messing around with boats and comparing ideas.

Ken Wise
Kennewick, Washington

Editor’s Note: One of the great things about working at NRS is the customers. Boaters, by and large, are just great people. For me, Ken Wise, and his son Joe, are two very special customers. Over the years, helping them pursue the “ultimate fishing craft” has been fun and instructive. These two guys are great at outside-the-box thinking and fun to work with. -Clyde